Women's March causes raised ahead of 2018 event

Sunday

Jan 14, 2018 at 3:01 AM

Deborah McDermott dmcdermott@seacoastonline.com @dmcdermoSMG

PORTSMOUTH — Something has shifted. The soil has been tilled. The honest discussions continue and expand. What started a year ago when more than 5 million people across the world took part in Women’s March events continued as waves of women have spoken up about sexual assault and harassment. They now prepare for a future of more shifts, more tilling, more discussion.

To quote Martin Luther King Jr., “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

That is the prevailing sentiment of a group of Seacoast residents who attended last year’s march in Washington, D.C., and this week shared their perspectives on the march and its implications for women now and in the future. The discussion comes as Occupy Seacoast, Climate Action NH and the Resistance Seacoast prepare to host the 2018 Women’s March on Jan. 20 in downtown Portsmouth.

“What brought us to the march last year may be different for each person. What’s so important is that it’s not all about us coming together so we can form one group and plan the next step in a particular direction. It’s that we’re going back to our lives, and we’re continuing to rise up. It’s this continuing motion,” said Sarah Palmer, a York resident and recent graduate of Cornell University.

“The first step was this showing of camaraderie and learning that we are strong,” she continued. “They’re trying to tell us we’re weak, we don’t have a voice and we don’t have a right to feel these things and to oppose them. And they’re wrong.”

Annika Strand, a senior at Portsmouth High School, agrees.

“The march was for women. It was not anti-anything. It was for women. We were not protesting one person. We don’t agree with Donald Trump but that’s not the point,” she said. “The point is we’re here and we are representing ourselves and we aim to continue to do that.”

The recent #metoo movement, which provided a platform for women and some men to talk about incidents of sexual harassment and sexual abuse, created a defining moment in the past year.

“I was astounded by the absolute cascading revelations, and the very personal things that began to come out,” said York, Maine, resident Holly Sargent, a former dean at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. “I never spoke about a situation when I was 7 years old with my bus driver in Windham, Maine. All of a sudden, it’s a totally freeing thing, and you don’t put that genie back in the jar. The question is how do we seize this, what do we do with it, and how do we protect ourselves against the backlash that is sure to come?”

Valerie Fagan of Portsmouth points to the Time’s Up organization formed just this month to, among other things, provide a legal defense fund, now at $13 million, to help economically challenged women navigate the system when they have been victims of sexual abuse or harassment.

For her, the fund underscores the need to embrace all women up and down the socioeconomic ladder and of all colors.

“For me it’s about the housekeeper, the Mexican immigrant, the Puerto Rican mother. It’s not just about me, it’s about us," Fagan said. "We don’t make it unless our sisters make it. It’s widening the scope and realizing we have to speak up, we have to be the leaders, because we have voiceless women out there who need us.”

Palmer, who is working on a mobile app to address sexual assault on college campuses, said the #metoo movement engaged her on several levels. For one, women were voicing incidents that “as a society we try to avoid. But in doing that, we tend to keep women isolated. ‘I’ll just remain silent.’ Or ‘it’s no big deal.’ The movement allowed women to tell their stories. It allowed people to feel they weren’t alone and that there was this power in solidarity.”

That sense of solidarity happened in large part because of the power of social media, she said. As she and Strand look to their own futures, they said the internet and social media will play a democratizing role.

“I absolutely see a hopeful future,” said Strand, “and a lot of that has to do with the internet. It’s one of the biggest tools we have.”

Social media has allowed for a globalization of discussion that was not possible even one generation ago, Palmer said.

“You’re no longer kept safely in a community exactly like you," she said. "With each generation, you’re forced out into the world. I see more people starting to have those moments when they connect with someone different than them. And each time that happens, it’s a victory.”

This past year was also the first of Trump’s administration, which concerns Peter Okhuysen of Portsmouth, who also attended the march in Washington.

“If three years ago, you would have said alt-right groups would be marching down some street with placards and symbols that haven’t been displayed publicly in the United States since the 1950s, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said. “I’m not sure where this (#metoo) movement is going to go. It could go on with force, or it could be quietly forgotten as the Supreme Court goes to the right, as appellate courts go to the right, as we still have a very conservative House and Senate and Executive.”

He harkens to the ill-fated Equal Rights Amendment, which he said he and many others worked to pass.

“We lobbied, we marched, we talked, but when it came down to it the states, the votes weren’t there," Okhuysen said. "To me it was a big disappointment. I hope that many of these issues that we’re dealing with can be crafted into good laws. Let’s put some good legislative legs underneath this.”

Sargent said that won’t happen until there are more women in power.

“The truth is, you can’t abuse power if you don’t have power," she said. "All these people signing major legislation in Washington, they’re all white men. Women need to be willing to say, OK, politics is messy but yes, we have to step forward and we have to take those positions.”

Fagan said she believes that the solidarity started a year ago has to, by rights, continue. “I think this is on par with a tilling of the soil," she said. "Things are turning. Things are happening. It’s a response to women saying, ‘no more.’ A lot more is going to happen.”

Okhuysen thinks about that arc of the moral universe.

“Look at how long it took for the suffrage movement to be successful. It was a long, hard fight just to get the vote,” he said. “This current movement may take a long time, and it may be hard and it won’t be a straight line. But it’s a fight worth enduring.”

Women's March 2018

The Women's March 2018 will be held in Market Square Saturday, Jan. 20 from 1 to 3 p.m. Organizers say the peaceful march will include speeches and will be led by the Leftist Marching Band. All are welcomed to attend. A link to the Seacoast Trolley schedule can be found here www.coastbus.org/trolley.html.

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